Without having to resort to decimals and stuff [change? what's that? LOL], I think this question, and many more like it, are deliberately made just to make this conundrum.

I think the thing that really makes questions like this is, as far as I remember, the number subtracted from the original tally is always prime. 5 is a prime number. We are then forced to divide it as equally as possible, but without resorting to decimals, in which case [because prime numbers cannot be divided by anything other than 1 and the number itself] we are left with a surplus on one side and a deficit on another. And thus, the whole thing evolve into a clusterf*ck [even if you mash B. LOL]

5 is taken. That is about $1.67 taken off per person. So that's about $8.33 paid per person.

8.33 8.33 8.33

That totals $25. They are then given $1 back each, and $2 is given to the bellhop.

8.33 + 8.33 + 8.33 + 1 + 1 + 1 +2 = 30

The problem was that when looked at collectively, the numbers are a little harder to see. Regardless, businesses are handled carefully and with far more than basic math skills.

Click to expand...

this ^ ,or you can 5/3 and it comes out 1.66666666....7
this 0.00000000....7 is the guilty as the number without this 0.0000000...7 cant become a full one (i dont know hot to write it in English hope its ok )
for example 1 and say at 0.944444444444444444...3

Nathan Drake explains it the best. Each person paid 1/3 of the bill. They got the 5 bucks back. They gave 2 to the bell boy. 25/3=8.333 repeating. Take the decimal from that number and multiply it by 3. There's your lost dollar.